South Canterbury Finance advanced more than $300 million to its charging group subsidiaries (a series of majority-owned finance companies), including $196.84 million to plant and equipment lender Face Finance, according to the first receivership report by
South Canterbury Finance advanced more than $300 million to its charging group subsidiaries (a series of majority-owned finance companies), including $196.84 million to plant and equipment lender Face Finance, according to the first receivership report by McGrathNicol.
One of the companies in the charging Group – investment vehicle Hornchurch Limited – lent $11.7 million to Dairy Holdings, a related party to South Canterbury.
Face Finance, South Canterbury’s plant and equipment financing subsidiary, had a total loan book of $205.43 million at the time of receivership. Of this amount, $8.48 million was impaired.
The company had cash and cash equivalents of just $399,193.
Face Finance is included in South Canterbury’s “good bank” assets. The company focused on lending to the road transport, aviation, earthmoving and construction sectors.
McGrathNicol last week announced Deutsche Bank's New Zealand branch was the sales adviser for South Canterbury's core finance assets, including Face Finance and Southbury Insurance.
A break down of South Canterbury advances to charging group subsidiaries is as follows:
Face Finance $196.84 million
Hornchurch $59.6 million
Galway Park $19.15 million
Belfast Park $14.3 million
Tyrone Estates $7.9 million
Flexi Lease $6.56 million
Fairfield Finance $766,445
SCFG Systems $204,089
South Canterbury Finance and its subsidiary companies were placed in receivership on August 31, triggering a $1.6 billion payout to depositors under the Crown retail deposit guarantee scheme.
A further $175 million was paid by the Crown to creditors with prior charges over the company’s assets. These included PGC-owned Torchlight Security Trustee and various trading banks.
Banks such as the ASB and Westpac lent money to the likes of Belfast Park and Tyrone Estates for property development. See NBR's earlier story on this here.
Receivers Kerryn Downey and William Black of McGrathNicol released their first report on the receivership last night.
They said they could not, at this stage, give an estimate as to the likely recovery for the taxpayer.
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